* It definately is useful. A metal reinforced corner might be enough. While it is possible to open bottles with most cell phones they don't look too good after opening a few cases.

+

* It definitely is useful. A metal reinforced corner might be enough. While it is possible to open bottles with most cell phones they don't look too good after opening a few cases.

==Hardware enhancements==

==Hardware enhancements==

Revision as of 14:51, 21 April 2007

These are ideas that are unlikely to be implemented in the neo1973. Some are impossible for any device,
some may be possible if technology improves in the future, when patents expire, or in othere models.

Alcohol Sensor

Alcohol sensor adjacent to microphone. It doesn't have to be accurate, just has to detect any amount of alcohol on the speaker's breath. I understand this is a very narrow market, but alcohol is on every parent's mind.

I think those who drive cars might profit from this feature too. --cedel 16:02, 20 February 2007 (CET)

Although this is a good idea, you have to be very careful about liability here. If it gives a false positive (i.e. you're not over the limit), and you have an accident, the OpenMoko team might be liable.

Disinfection UV-Light

I had read about it in an Article on http://www.americanairandwater.com/UV-news/. But Motorola patents it.
Yes - finally a way to stop the billions of annual deaths due to cellphone infections! --Speedevil 14:04, 16 February 2007 (CET)
It´s just something that flying in my head... It´s not the first "unreal" or "useless" idea. Just for fun! --MookiE 14:51, 16 February 2007 (CET)

More seriously - UV of the required frequency is inherently eye-damaging.
Also, as I understand it, there are actually no UV LEDs that will reliably produce 'germicidal' UV.
The most expensive - and they are very expensive - ones produce UV of a sort that may kill very susceptible bacteria, but comparatively few.
IIRC the LEDs are $20 per.
--Speedevil 15:11, 16 February 2007 (CET)

Teleportation

Implementing a beaming-device to the Neo would make it the first phone enabling teleportation.
See: [1]
Possible implementation difficulties might be the lacking teleportation-support in the GSM standard as well as uncooperative mobile service providers that feel uneasy towards innovative technologies...

(Please get serious. You would obviously need more bandwidth to make this practical. Wifi would be better or at least 3G. maybe you could use Bluetooth with the right compression algorithms.)

V12 Embedded power source

We'll need something beefy to power the next Neos for the above gadgets, I propose the use of a Embeddable Power Source, that with some miniturisation and a bit of design work should be workable as a possible solution.

Floppy Disk Drive

For people stuck in the past who just can't let go of that last 3 and a half inches.

PCMCIA slot

Extensibility would be nice. Standard pcmcia would be great for allowing wireless too. And pcmcia cards tend to be very low power.

This is certain not to happen in a production phone, it's simply far too large, and requires complex support in hardware, which does not exist in most system on a chip devices as are used in phones.
Even for the Expansion_Back it would be too large. --Speedevil 06:05, 28 February 2007 (CET)

Hard Drive

At least the initial devices will be phones. In a phone this is a bad idea.
There may be future devices that it would be appropriate in.

Dump the egg-shaped case design and go rectangular for more screen space

I'm all for devices that look great and have great features - aside from that I really like the current design. Thus I'd like to comment that the design change request is probably not the majority's opinion. Abraxa 00:00, 18 February 2007 (CET)

There will be many OpenMoko devices, of different designs. --Speedevil 06:19, 28 February 2007 (CET)

Bottle opener

It definitely is useful. A metal reinforced corner might be enough. While it is possible to open bottles with most cell phones they don't look too good after opening a few cases.

Hardware enhancements

Some small hardware enhancement could be cheap, but very useful. Please add your ideas/wishes here:

Integrate a Hard drive
I'm surprised no one thought of this, but its the first modification anyone does to at multi-media device.
If an extension is made so that a 1.8" hard drive can be easily added or even made hot swappable, that would be wonderful. It's the next logical step to make this device perfect. I think everyone is missing the fact that if you make the device this flexible, most people will want to keep and store all their content on their device. Its very important that the hdd can be replaced when neccessary, if someone takes times to customize their device exactly how they want it, they will all want the option to add more memory when neccessary without having to buy a completely new device.

Also, the "pill-shape" look isn't very appealing to the business users, it gives it the impression that this device is only for the younger generation because its so "PSP-like". If you make the buyer's an second option of a rectangular shape it will more appealing to the business user.

Made Hardware Extension/Expansion for the Base Product
Market this device like a fully customizable PC;
- create a base device, (which you already did)
- add wifi and bluetooth(absolutely neccesary for any mobile device)
- make expansion hardware, that user can connect to the base hardware, (e.g camera & hdd; gamepad...etc)
- just like a PC the user will choose customizations that sue their needs.
- most important, the expansion hardware should NOT be a peripheral that has ridiculously long cables, it should fit snuggly to the device making it a little thicker than the base device.
- This mobile entertainment generation wants an all-in-one device. They want their cellphone, mp3 player, pda, digital camera(which takes good quality and sized pictures), video player to all fit in their pocket.
- That's why the ipod's hot, but that is why this is hotter, the user can get all those things and upload software to make it better it even better to their personalities.

If the hardware is made as customizable as the software, everyone will have one of these device, from the smallest child to a CEO of a corporation, because it can be made exactly to what the user wants. Market the expansion hardware, no-one will mind paying for the parts as they need them, but they will be very upset about not being able to do want they really want to do with it. No one will even think about looking at other devices. If the "regular joe/jill" has to buy a new part instead of a whole new device, which do you think he/she will choose?

The neo1973 is a phone, to be marketed as a phone. Future devices may be marketed in other ways. The shape and number of buttons is fixed for this device. Minor modifications may happen before it ships in September.

See Expansion Back for expansion thoughts. Extendable devices otherwise simply aren't really possible, unless you make the phone larger than needed.

The connectors take up volume, add unreliability, need mechanical fixings, and modules have to be larger than required to allow slight increases in size. --Speedevil 14:47, 17 April 2007 (CEST)

Views

Personal tools

These are ideas that are unlikely to be implemented in the neo1973. Some are impossible for any device,
some may be possible if technology improves in the future, when patents expire, or in othere models.

LASER keyboard (can be a full QWERTY keyboard)

On the hardware side, this would require a $5 laser diode, a $3 (in bulk) custom diffraction grating, and probably a couple of cubic centimetres volume inside the phone.

This requires a camera pointable to the front.

It requires an integrated stand for the phone.

To practically use this, you've got to be 40cm or so away from the phone, which means under 25*20 of text resolution.

In software, it's relatively easy to parse the camera output, to find changes in the known laser field.

Alcohol Sensor

Alcohol sensor adjacent to microphone. It doesn't have to be accurate, just has to detect any amount of alcohol on the speaker's breath. I understand this is a very narrow market, but alcohol is on every parent's mind.

I think those who drive cars might profit from this feature too. --cedel 16:02, 20 February 2007 (CET)

Although this is a good idea, you have to be very careful about liability here. If it gives a false positive (i.e. you're not over the limit), and you have an accident, the OpenMoko team might be liable.

Disinfection UV-Light

I had read about it in an Article on http://www.americanairandwater.com/UV-news/. But Motorola patents it.
Yes - finally a way to stop the billions of annual deaths due to cellphone infections! --Speedevil 14:04, 16 February 2007 (CET)
It´s just something that flying in my head... It´s not the first "unreal" or "useless" idea. Just for fun! --MookiE 14:51, 16 February 2007 (CET)

More seriously - UV of the required frequency is inherently eye-damaging.
Also, as I understand it, there are actually no UV LEDs that will reliably produce 'germicidal' UV.
The most expensive - and they are very expensive - ones produce UV of a sort that may kill very susceptible bacteria, but comparatively few.
IIRC the LEDs are $20 per.
--Speedevil 15:11, 16 February 2007 (CET)

Teleportation

Implementing a beaming-device to the Neo would make it the first phone enabling teleportation.
See: [1]
Possible implementation difficulties might be the lacking teleportation-support in the GSM standard as well as uncooperative mobile service providers that feel uneasy towards innovative technologies...

(Please get serious. You would obviously need more bandwidth to make this practical. Wifi would be better or at least 3G. maybe you could use Bluetooth with the right compression algorithms.)

V12 Embedded power source

We'll need something beefy to power the next Neos for the above gadgets, I propose the use of a Embeddable Power Source, that with some miniturisation and a bit of design work should be workable as a possible solution.

Floppy Disk Drive

For people stuck in the past who just can't let go of that last 3 and a half inches.

PCMCIA slot

Extensibility would be nice. Standard pcmcia would be great for allowing wireless too. And pcmcia cards tend to be very low power.

This is certain not to happen in a production phone, it's simply far too large, and requires complex support in hardware, which does not exist in most system on a chip devices as are used in phones.
Even for the Expansion_Back it would be too large. --Speedevil 06:05, 28 February 2007 (CET)

Hard Drive

At least the initial devices will be phones. In a phone this is a bad idea.
There may be future devices that it would be appropriate in.

Dump the egg-shaped case design and go rectangular for more screen space

I'm all for devices that look great and have great features - aside from that I really like the current design. Thus I'd like to comment that the design change request is probably not the majority's opinion. Abraxa 00:00, 18 February 2007 (CET)

There will be many OpenMoko devices, of different designs. --Speedevil 06:19, 28 February 2007 (CET)

Bottle opener

It definately is useful. A metal reinforced corner might be enough. While it is possible to open bottles with most cell phones they don't look too good after opening a few cases.

Hardware enhancements

Some small hardware enhancement could be cheap, but very useful. Please add your ideas/wishes here:

Integrate a Hard drive
I'm surprised no one thought of this, but its the first modification anyone does to at multi-media device.
If an extension is made so that a 1.8" hard drive can be easily added or even made hot swappable, that would be wonderful. It's the next logical step to make this device perfect. I think everyone is missing the fact that if you make the device this flexible, most people will want to keep and store all their content on their device. Its very important that the hdd can be replaced when neccessary, if someone takes times to customize their device exactly how they want it, they will all want the option to add more memory when neccessary without having to buy a completely new device.

Also, the "pill-shape" look isn't very appealing to the business users, it gives it the impression that this device is only for the younger generation because its so "PSP-like". If you make the buyer's an second option of a rectangular shape it will more appealing to the business user.

Made Hardware Extension/Expansion for the Base Product
Market this device like a fully customizable PC;
- create a base device, (which you already did)
- add wifi and bluetooth(absolutely neccesary for any mobile device)
- make expansion hardware, that user can connect to the base hardware, (e.g camera & hdd; gamepad...etc)
- just like a PC the user will choose customizations that sue their needs.
- most important, the expansion hardware should NOT be a peripheral that has ridiculously long cables, it should fit snuggly to the device making it a little thicker than the base device.
- This mobile entertainment generation wants an all-in-one device. They want their cellphone, mp3 player, pda, digital camera(which takes good quality and sized pictures), video player to all fit in their pocket.
- That's why the ipod's hot, but that is why this is hotter, the user can get all those things and upload software to make it better it even better to their personalities.

If the hardware is made as customizable as the software, everyone will have one of these device, from the smallest child to a CEO of a corporation, because it can be made exactly to what the user wants. Market the expansion hardware, no-one will mind paying for the parts as they need them, but they will be very upset about not being able to do want they really want to do with it. No one will even think about looking at other devices. If the "regular joe/jill" has to buy a new part instead of a whole new device, which do you think he/she will choose?

The neo1973 is a phone, to be marketed as a phone. Future devices may be marketed in other ways. The shape and number of buttons is fixed for this device. Minor modifications may happen before it ships in September.

See Expansion Back for expansion thoughts. Extendable devices otherwise simply aren't really possible, unless you make the phone larger than needed.

The connectors take up volume, add unreliability, need mechanical fixings, and modules have to be larger than required to allow slight increases in size. --Speedevil 14:47, 17 April 2007 (CEST)